US tax advice around the world

We assisted a family in efficient structuring of the family's business activities in the US and the UK as well as their family charitable foundation. The unique nature of our US team based in London enabled us to provide both the UK and US advice on the structuring and charitable foundation under one roof.

We worked alongside Brazilian counsel to advise a client on the FATCA and CRS reporting requirements applicable to their complex succession structure for his offshore assets. These included a private trust company, trusts, companies and other entities, a private investment fund and multiple investment accounts, and involved the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and the US. The advice also needed to take into account the client's plans to relocate his family from Brazil to London, and possibly thereafter to New York City.

A Chilean family's child was an accidental American by virtue of birth, and we helped them to address US tax reporting issues and eliminate future entanglement with the US.

Working with a Chilean–US family, we helped to address compliance deficiencies in their family wealth succession planning structure. Small modifications to the structure substantially decreased US annual taxation and simplified reporting, addressing the US family members' income tax, FBAR and FATCA reporting issues. We also liaised with Chilean banks to quickly unfreeze needed accounts.

A Brazilian private equity fund executive requested advice on pre-immigration planning in connection with his relocation to the United States. We helped to coordinate the timing of his tax recognition from certain transactions to occur while he was still a Brazilian tax resident and others to be taxed after becoming a US tax resident. We also established different types of trust structures to protect assets from US estate tax, a foreign trust to defer income taxation on existing carried interests, and a traditional US estate planning trust for carried interests not yet paying out.

Buying property in a different country can be more complicated between some jurisdictions and in particular for a US buyer in the UK. Our integrated US team in London working with our UK tax and property teams were able to assist our US client to buy the UK residential property, utilizing debt finance from his US trust structure. It was important to get the interplay between US and UK estate taxes right for him in light of him also becoming a UK tax resident, so we have advised on his broader estate planning too.

We investigated the circumstances of a client who was a Brazilian entrepreneur investing in the United States. We determined that he had inherited United States citizenship from his parents but had never filed US income tax returns or reporting forms. We quickly and efficiently addressed the noncompliance by entering him into the IRS offshore streamlined program.

We advised our client, a non-domiciled UK resident and his family on a new structure that was required to be efficient from a US and UK perspective and with trusts designed to optimize tax efficiency for his children on the event of his death. Our family team also advised on a multi-jurisdictional post nuptial agreement.

Advised the trustee of a Jersey trust, working alongside US colleagues, on the conversion of that trust to a grantor trust for US tax purposes while walking the fine-line to preserve the favourable tax regime of the trust for UK tax purposes and avoiding triggering UK tax issues on the conversion.

When he became engaged to a Swiss citizen, the son of a high-profile UK businessman asked us to help him obtain a British Passport and expatriate from the US. We were also asked to draft a prenuptial agreement. Timing was of the essence but as a global, full-service firm we created a team of immigration, family and private client lawyers to meet tight deadlines.

A prominent non-US family contacted Withers for advice on creating tax efficient structures to help them invest in US property and business. Withers' years of invaluable experience in this area allowed us to help them to navigate their tax liabilities in the US and their country of domicile, avoiding a potential 'double tax' bill.